Who is My Neighbor?

Headed to a neighborhood meeting one night, a Christian man was walking through part of the city from his parked car. To get from where he was parked to the meeting, he had to walk from behind the building where he was parked to the meeting in front.

As he exited the alleyway, three young men approached him. They told the man to give them his watch, wallet and cell phone, while they brandished knives. The man told the young men that what they were doing wasn’t necessary and that no matter what they were going through there were better ways to get what they need and want in life. The young men looked at each other, laughed and proceeded to attack the man. They not only took his watch, wallet and cell phone, but also beat him nearly to death, after which they ran off.

As the man lay bleeding at the intersection of the alleyway and the sidewalk along the street, he saw out of his bloody eye a hazy figure in a window across the street. He tried to call out to the person in the window, but as he did, the person pulled the shade down and turned off the light.

After what seemed like an eternity to the man, but was more likely only a few minutes, a neighborhood leader who was headed to the meeting passed by the man. By this time the man had passed out. Not sure whether the man was dead or not, and already running late for the meeting, the neighborhood leader decided that it would be best to continue on his way to the meeting because this sort of thing happens all the time and his time would be better spent trying to prevent it from happening in the future to someone else, especially if this man was already dead as he appeared to be.

A young Muslim man walking down the street approached the Christian man lying nearly dead on the sidewalk. The Muslim man immediately dropped to his knees and checked the man for a pulse. Finding one, he retrieved his cell phone and called 9-1-1. After the paramedics arrived, the Muslim man told them that he didn’t know who the man was or what had happened, but that he would join them in the ambulance to take the man to the hospital.

Once at the hospital, the Muslim man repeated to the admitting nurse that he didn’t know who the dying man was, nor what had happened to him. The nurse then told the Muslim man that they would stabilize the man, but then transfer him to a county hospital because he had no I.D., nor any insurance documentation. The Muslim man then pulled out his wallet and gave the nurse $500 dollars in cash that he had been saving for a down-payment on a car, saying to use the cash to cover the man’s medical expenses. The nurse chided the Muslim man that $500 would not be nearly enough to cover the emergency room fees. The Muslim man then reached back into his wallet and retrieved his American Express Platinum card and told the nurse to use that to cover any additional fees that the cash did not cover.